Using Evolution for Email
This chapter, and , will
provide you with an in-depth guide to the capabilities of
Evolution as a mail client. For information about how to set up
your mail account, see .
If you use IMAP Mail
If you chose IMAP mail during the setup process, you must
subscribe to your mail folders before you can read mail in
them. Read to find out
how.
Reading Mail
If you are not already viewing mail, switch to the mail tool by clicking the
Email button in the shortcut bar. To read a message,
select it in the message list; if you'd like to see it in its
own window, double-click on it, or press Return or
CtrlO.
Reading Mail with the Keyboard
You can click the space bar to page down while you're reading
an email, and press backspace to page up in an email.
Navigate the message list by pressing the arrow keys up
and down. To go to the next and previous
unread messages, press the
. (period) or , (comma)
keys. On most keyboards, these keys are also marked
with the > and < symbols, which makes a convenient way
to remember that they move you forward and backward in your
message list. You can also use ] (close
bracket) for the next unread message, and [
(open bracket) for the previous unread message.
Sorting the message list
Evolution helps you work by letting you sort
your email. To sort by sender, subject, or date, click
on the bars with those labels at the top of the message
list. The direction of the arrow next to the label indicates
the direction of the sort, and if you click again, you'll
sort them in reverse order. For example, click once on
Date to sort messages by date from
oldest to newest. Click again, and
Evolution sorts the list from
newest to oldest. You can also right-click on the message
header bars to get a set of sorting options, and add or
remove columns from the message list. You can find detailed
instructions on how to customize your message display
columns in .
Email Headers
To look at the complete headers for email messages, select
ViewMessage
DisplayShow Full
Headers. To see absolutely every
bit, choose
ViewMessage
DisplayShow Email Source
.
You can also choose a threaded message view. Select
ViewThreaded
to turn the threaded view on or off. When you select this option,
Evolution groups the replies to a
message with the original, so you can follow the thread of a
conversation from one message to the next.
Message Threading In ActionMessage Threading In ActionDeleting Mail
Once you've read your mail, you may want to get rid of
it.
To delete a message:
Click the message to select it
Press delete button or right click on the message and
choose Delete.
Why do I still see deleted mail?
When you press Delete or click
the trash button, your mail isn't actually deleted,
but is marked for deletion. Your email is not gone
until you have expunged it. When you "Expunge" a
folder, you remove all the mail that you have marked
for deletion.
If you don't like this behavior, select
ViewHide
Deleted Messages. Then,
you will only see deleted messages when you look in
your Trash folder.
Click
ActionsExpunge
or press
CtrlETrash is Actually a vFolder?
Both local and IMAP Trash folders are actually vFolders that
display all messages you have marked for later deletion.
For more information about vFolders, see . Since emptying
your trash expunges the messages in your Trash folder,
choosing ActionsEmpty Trash is the
same as expunging deleted mail from all
your folders.
This is not, however, true for the Trash folder on Exchange
servers, which behaves just the same as it would in
Outlook. That is to say, the Trash folder on an Exchange
server is a normal folder with actual messages in it.
Undeleting Messages
To undelete a message:
Select a message you have marked for deletion.
Press CtrlU
or choose
EditUndeleteWhat does Undelete actually do?
If you have marked a message for deletion, undeleting
it will unmark it, and the message will be removed
from the Trash folder. However, it can't bring back
messages that have been expunged.
Checking for New Mail
Now that you've had a look around the
Inbox, it's time to check for new mail.
Click Send/Receive in the toolbar to check
your mail. If you haven't entered any mail settings yet, the
setup assistant will ask you for the
information it needs to check your email.
The assistant will give you several dialog boxes where you configure:
your personal information
your outgoing email server information
your mail account identity name
Mail Setup AssistantMail Setup Assistant
To check your email, press the Send/Receive
button. If this is your first time checking mail, or you
haven't asked Evolution to store your
password, you'll be prompted for the password. Enter your
password and your email will be downloaded.
Can't Check Mail?
If you get an error message instead of mail, you probably need
to check your network settings. To learn how to do that, have
a look at , or ask your
system administrator.
Sharing Mailboxes with Other Mail Programs
If you want to use Evolution
and another email client, such as
Mutt, at the same time,
here's how:
Download your mail in the other application as
you would normally.
In Evolution, select
Tools
Settings, go to the
Mail Accounts configuration tool, and pick the account
you'd like to use to share mail. You may want to
create a new account just for this source of
mail.
Under the Receiving Mail
tab, select the type of mail file that your
other mail application uses, and then enter the
full path to that location. A typical choice
would be mbox files, with the path /home/username/Mail/.
Click the OK button.
Working with Attachments and HTML Mail
If someone sends you an attachment,
a file attached to an email,
Evolution will display the file
at the bottom of the message to which it's attached. Text,
including HTML formatting and embedded images, will appear
as part of the message, rather than at the end of the
message as an attachment.
Saving or Opening Attachments
If you get an attachment with an email message,
Ximian Evolution can help you save
it or open it with the appropriate applications.
To save an attachment to disk:
Click the downward pointing arrow on the attachment icon
and select Save As....
Choose a location and name for the file.
Click OK.
To Open an Attachment in a Program:
Open the mail message with the attachment you want to read.
Click the arrow next the attachment icon.
Select the program you'd like to use. It will start up
and open the document.
The options available for an attachment will vary depending
on the type of attachment. For example, attached email
messages can be replied to or forwarded, while attached
compressed archive files can be opened in the File Roller
application.
Inline Images in HTML Mail
When someone sends you HTML mail that includes an image in
the body of the message (for example, the welcome message in your
Inbox) Evolution
will display the image inside the message. You can create
messages like this by using the
InsertImage
tool in the message composer (you must have HTML mail enabled
to do this-- select
FormatHTML
to turn HTML composition on and off). Alternately, just drag
an image into the message composition area.
If the image isn't included in the message, but is, instead,
a link to an image, Evolution can
download the image from the Internet for you. However,
Evolution will not display the
image unless you ask it to. This is because remotely hosted
images can be slow to load and display, and can even be used
by spammers to track who reads their email. Having images
not load automatically helps protect your privacy.
If you want the images to load for one message, select
ViewMessage DisplayLoad Images.
If you want Ximian Evolution to
load remotely hosted images more often, select
ToolsSettings and click the Mail Preferences
button. There, click the HTML
Mail tab and select one of the items there:
Never load images off the net,
Load images if sender is in address
book, or Always load images off the
net.Loading Images from the Net through an HTTP Proxy
If you use an HTTP proxy (as in many large organizations),
Evolution must be able to find
it through the gnome-vfs subsystem
before it can load images from the Internet. This is also
the case if you wish to access weather and news information
through the Summary tool.
If you are using GNOME 1.4, you will need to configure this
in the Nautilus Preferences
dialog. However, in GNOME 2.0 and later, you can use the
GNOME Control Center. Select
SystemSettings
from your menu panel or from the GNOME menu, and then click
the Network Proxies button in the
System Settings category. Select the
Use an HTTP network proxy check box and
then enter information about your proxy. If you are not sure,
check with your ISP or system administrator.
Composing New Email Messages
You can start writing a new email message by selecting
FileNew
Mail Message, or by pressing the
New button in the Inbox toolbar.
When you do so, the New Message window
will open, as shown in .
New Message WindowEvolution Main Window
Enter an address in the To: field. If you
wish, enter a subject in the Subject:, and
a message in the box at the bottom of the window.
Once you have written your message, press
Send.
Unicode, ASCII, and Non-Latin Alphabets
If you want to write in a non-Latin alphabet while using a
Latin keyboard, try selecting a different an input method in
the message composer. Right-click on the message composition
area and select from the Input Methods
menu, then begin typing. The actual keys vary by language and
input style. For example, the Cyrillic input method uses
transliterated Latin keyboard combinations to get the Cyrillic
alphabet, combining letters where necessary. "Zh" and "ya"
produce the appropriate single Cyrillic letters, and the
single-quote ' produces a soft-sign character.
For greater language display capabilities, check your
character settings. In both the mail composer and mail reader
settings dialogs, you can select from dozens of character
sets. If you aren't sure which one to choose, go ahead and
choose UTF-8, which offers the greatest range of character
displays for the greatest range of languages.
To delve a little deeper into the issue, a character set is a
computer's version of an alphabet. One of the most popular
early character sets was called ASCII. It consisted of 128
numbers, letters, and assorted symbols used by computers for
almost everything. It was convenient, and didn't take up much
space, but it didn't handle Cyrillic, Kanjii, or other
non-Latin alphabets. Programmers developed a
variety of mostly incompatible ways to work around their
language display problems, and today, many human languages
have their own specific character sets, and items written in
other character sets will display incorrectly. Eventually,
standards organizations developed the Unicode character sets
(UTF-7 and UTF-8) to provide a single compatible set of codes
for everyone.
Most email messages state in advance which character set they
use, so Evolution usually knows what to display for a given
binary number. However, if you find that messages are
displayed as rows of incomprehensible characters, try
selecting a different character set in the mail settings
screen. If your recipients can't read your messages, try
selecting a different character set in the composer options
dialog. For some languages, such as Turkish or Korean, it may
work best for you to select the language-specific character
set. However, the best choice for most users is UTF-8, which
offers the widest range of characters for the widest range of
languages.
Sending Composed Messages Later
Evolution will normally send
mail as soon as you click the Send
button. However, there are a few ways you can save a
message to be sent later:
If you are offline,
Evolution will add your
messages to the Outbox queue. The
next time you connect to the Internet and send or
receive mail, that message will be sent.
Choose
FileSave Draft
to store your messages in the drafts folder for later
revision.
If you prefer to save your message as a text file,
choose Save As and then choose a
file name.
Working Offline
Offline mode is a tool designed for use with remote mail
storage systems like GroupWise, IMAP or Exchange,
in situations where you will not be connected to
the network at all times. It will keep a local copy of one or
more folders, and allow you to compose messages, storing them
in your Outbox to be sent the next time you connect.
While POP mail downloads all messages to your local system,
other connections usually download just the headers, and fetch
the rest only when you want to read the message. Before you
go offline, Evolution will download the unread messages from
the folders you have chosen to store.
To mark a folder for offline use, select ToolsSettings and then
click the Folder Settings icon. In the
Offline Folders tab, click the check-box
next to the folders that you would like to use while you are
offline.
Your connection status is shown by the small icon in the lower
left border of the Evolution main window. When you are online,
it will display two connected cables. When you go offline, the
cables will separate.
To cache your selected folders and disconnect from the
network, select FileWork
Offline or click the
connection status icon in the lower left of the screen. When you
want to reconnect, choose
FileWork
Online or click the connection
status icon again.
More About Mail Composition
In the next few sections, you'll see how
Evolution handles advanced email
features, including large recipient lists, attachments, and
forwarding.
Attachments
To attach a file to your email:
Push the attach button in the composer toolbar
Select the file you want to attach
Press OK
You can drag a file into the address area or to the
attachment portion of the composer
window. If you are attaching an image and wish to send it
inline rather than attached, drag the image into the text
composition area of the composer window. Non-image files
cannot be dragged into the text composition area.
The attachment display area is at the bottom of the
composer window; you can expand or shrink it by clicking the
small triangle in its upper right corner.
When you send the message, a copy of the attached file
will go with it. Be aware that big attachments may take a
long time to send and receive.
Specifying Recipients for Email
Evolution, like most email
programs, recognizes three types of addressee: primary
recipients, secondary recipients, and hidden ("blind")
recipients.
The simplest way to direct a message is to put the email
address or addresses in the To:
field, which denotes primary recipients. To send mail to
more than one or two people, you can use the
Cc: field.
Hearkening back to the dark ages when people used
typewriters and there were no copy machines, "Cc" stands
for "Carbon Copy." Use it whenever you want to share a
message you've written to someone else.
Bcc: is a little more complex. You
use it like Cc:, but people on the
Bcc: list are hidden from the other
recipients of the message. Use it to send mail to large
groups of people, especially if they don't know each other
or if privacy is a concern. If your Bcc: field is absent, click
ViewBcc Field.
If you frequently write email to the same groups of people,
you can create address lists in the Contact Manager, and
then send them mail as though they had a single address.
To learn how to do that, read .
Setting Reply-to On a Per-Mail Basis
Evolution has the ability to
let you specify the Reply-To in an email. Using this, you
can setup a special Reply-To for an email. To do this:
Open a composer window
Open the Reply-To field by selecting
ViewReply To
Enter the address you wish to have be the
Reply-To address in the new Reply-To field.
Choosing Recipients Quickly
If you have created address cards in the contact manager,
you can also enter nicknames or other portions of address
data, and Evolution will offer a
drop down list of possible address completions from your
address book. If you enter a name or nickname that can go
with more than one card, Evolution will open a dialog box to
ask you which person you meant.
Alternately, you can click on the
To:, Cc:, or
Bcc: buttons to get a list —
potentially a very long one — of the email addresses
in your contact manager. Select addresses and click on
the arrows to move them into the appropriate address
columns.
For more information about using email together with the
contact manager and the calendar, see and .
Replying to Email Messages
To reply to a message, press the
Reply button while it is selected,
or choose Reply to Sender from
the message's right-click menu. That will open the
message composer. The
To: and Subject:
fields will already be filled, although you can alter them
if you wish. In addition, the full text of the old message
is inserted into the new message, either in grey with a
blue line to one side (for HTML display) or with the >
character before each line (in plain text mode), to
indicate that it's part of the previous message. People
often intersperse their message with the quoted material as
shown in .
Reply Message WindowEvolution Main Window
If you're reading a message with several recipients, you may
wish to use Reply to All instead of
Reply. If there are large numbers
of people in the Cc: or
To: fields, this can save substantial
amounts of time.
Using the Reply to All feature
Susan sends an email to a client and sends copies to Tim
and to an internal company mailing list of co-workers.
If Tim wants to make a comment for all of them to read,
he uses Reply to All, but if he
just wants to tell Susan that he agrees with her, he
uses Reply. Note that his reply
will not reach anyone that Susan put on her
Bcc list, since that list is not
shared with anyone.
If you're subscribed to a mailing list, and want your reply
to go just to the list, rather than to the sender, choose
Reply to List instead of
Reply or Reply to
All.
What is a Mailing List?
Mailing Lists are one of the most popular tools for
group collaboration on the Internet. Here's how they work:
Someone sends a message to a single address, like
evolution@ximian.com.
That address belongs to a program that distributes
the message to a list of recipients.
The mail management program lets individuals subscribe
to or unsubscribe from the list at will, without
requiring the message writers to remember the addresses
of every recipient.
Mailing list servers can also let network administrators
control mail flow, list membership, and even moderate
the content of mailing lists.
Searching and Replacing with the Composer
You are probably familiar with search and replace features
in any sort of text-editing software, and if you come from
a Linux or Unix background, you may know what
Find Regex does. If you aren't
among the lucky who already know, here's a quick rundown of
the automated text searching features that the message
composer makes available to you.
Find Enter a word or phrase, and
Evolution will find it
in your message.
Find Regex
Find a regex, also called a
regular
expression, in your composer window.
Find Again
Select this item to repeat the last search you performed.
Replace
Find a word or phrase, and replace it with
something else.
For all of these menu items, you can choose whether or not
to Search Backwards in the document
from the point where your cursor is. For all but the
regular expression search (which doesn't need it), you are
offered a check box to determine whether the search is to
be Case Sensitive when it determines
a match.
Enhance your email with HTML
Normally, you can't set text styles or insert pictures in
emails, which is why email is often regarded as
uncommunicative and cold, and why people often resort to
using far too many exclamation points to convey their
feelings. However, most newer email programs can display
images and text styles as well as basic alignment and
paragraph formatting. They do this with HTML, just like web pages do.
HTML Mail is not a Default Setting
Some people do not have HTML-capable mail clients, or
prefer not to receive HTML-enhanced mail because it is
slower to download and display. Because some people may
prefer not to get HTML mail,
Evolution sends plain text
unless you explicitly ask for HTML.
You can change the format of an email message between
plain text and HTML by choosing Format
HTML.
To send all your mail as HTML by default, set your mail
format preferences in the mail configuration dialog. See
for more
information.
HTML formatting tools are located in the toolbar just above
the space where you'll actually compose the message, and
they also appear in the Insert and
Format menus.
The icons in the toolbar are explained in tool-tips, which appear when
you hold your mouse over the buttons. The buttons fall
into four categories:
Headers and lists
At the left edge of the toolbar, you can choose
Normal for a default text style
or Header 1 through
Header 6 for varying sizes of
header from large (1) to tiny (6). Other styles
include preformat, to use the HTML
tag for preformatted blocks of text, and three types
of bullet points for the highly
organized.
Using Bullets to Make Your Email More
Attractive
Instead of using asterisks to mark a bulleted list,
try the Bulleted List style from the style dropdown
list. Evolution uses
more attractive bullets and handles word wrap and
multiple levels of indentation.
Text style
Use these buttons to determine the way your letters
look. If you have text selected, the style will
apply to the selected text. If you do not have text
selected, the style will apply to whatever you type
next. The buttons are:
Push bold A for bold textPush italic A for italicsPush underlined A to underlinePush strikethrough A for a strikethrough.Alignment
Located next to the text style buttons, these three
paragraph icons should be familiar to users of most
word processing software. The leftmost button will
make your text aligned to the left, the center
button, centered, and the right hand button,
aligned on the right side.
Indentation rules
The button with the arrow pointing left will reduce
a paragraph's indentation, and the right arrow will
increase its indentation.
Color Selection
At the far right is the color section tool. The
colored box displays the current text color; to
choose a new one, click the arrow button just to the
right. If you have text selected, the color will
apply to the selected text. If you do not have text
selected, the color will apply to whatever you type
next. You can select a background color or image by
right-clicking on the message background and
selecting StylePage Style.
The Insert gives you opinions which let you
spruce up your email to make it more interesting:
Insert Link
Lets you link some text to a website. Use this tool to put hyperlinks in your HTML
messages. If you don't want special link text, you can just enter the address
directly, and Evolution
will recognize it as a link. To add a link, first make sure you have enabled
HTML mode by selecting Format
HTML.
Select the text you wish to link from.
Right click on the text and click on Link.
Put the URL you want to use in the URL field.
Click OK.
If you're typing a web page address to be automatically formatted, keep in mind that a space terminates the link.
Insert Image
Lets you put an image alongside text.
To insert an image into your email:
Make sure that you have the
FormatHTML
selector checked.
Click the Insert Image button in the toolbar, or select
InsertImage.
Choose your image by clicking the Browse button.
Press Insert to insert the image.
Insert Rule
Inserts a horizontal line into the text to help divide two
sections.
To insert a rule:
Make sure that you have the
FormatHTML
selector checked.
Click the Rule button in the Toolbar.
Select the type of rule. You can use a plain
line, a 3D line, or a yellow line with flowers.
Choose the size of the line, as a percentage of the width of the email window.
Choose the alignment and style. For the plain
line, you can choose the thickness of the line,
and whether it will be shaded, or solid. For the
other types, you can only choose alignment.
Click Insert to insert the rule.
Insert Table
Inserts a table into the text to help divide two
sections.
To insert a table:
Make sure that you have the
FormatHTML
selector checked.
Click the Table button in the Toolbar.
Select the table Template
you wish to use. Each has a slightly different feel and
layout.
If you so desire, you may change the number of
rows, columns, spacing of each cell, and so forth.
Click the Insert button.
Once the table is in place, you can right-click on
it and get a list of ways to alter it, such as
changing its background color, expanding it, or
deleting a row or cell.
Templates
Evolution not only allows you to
decorate your email with HTML text and graphics, but
provides you with prebuilt templates for you to use when
making these improvements. You can use these to emphasize a
point or frame an image in an attractive manner.
To include a template into your HTML based email:
Make sure that the
Format
HTML
selector is checked.
Click the HTML Template button in the
Toolbar or select
Insert
Template
Select the template type in the
Template selection box. Your
options are Note and
Image Frame.
Set the size and alignment of the HTML template.
Click Insert to insert it where the
cursor is.
Click on the text in the template, and enter the text
you want to use.
If you have selected an image frame template,
right-click on the image and select
Image to select the image
you want to place in the frame.
Forwarding Mail
The post office forwards your mail for you when you change
addresses, and you can forward a letter if it comes to you by mistake.
The email Forward button
works in much the same way. It's particularly useful if you
have received a message and you think someone else would
like to see it. You can forward a message as an attachment
to a new message (this is the default) or
you can send it inline as a quoted
portion of the message you are sending. Attachment
forwarding is best if you want to send the full, unaltered
message on to someone else. Inline forwarding is best if
you want to send portions of a message, or if you have a
large number of comments on different sections of the
message you are forwarding. Remember to note from whom the
message came, and where, if at all, you have removed or
altered content.
To forward a message you are reading, press
Forward on the toolbar, select
ActionsForward, or press
CtrlJ. If
you prefer to forward the message inline
instead of attached, select ActionsForward
Inline from the menu. Choose an
addressee as you would when sending a new message; the
subject will already be entered, although you can alter it
if you wish. Enter your comments on the message in the
composition frame, and press
Send.
Seven Tips for Email Courtesy
Don't forward chain letters. If you must, watch out for
hoaxes and urban legends, and make sure the message
doesn't have multiple layers of greater-than signs,
(>) indicating multiple layers of careless in-line
forwarding.
Always begin and close with a salutation. Say "please"
and "thank you," just like you do in real life. You
can keep your pleasantries short, but be pleasant!
WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS MEANS YOU'RE SHOUTING!
Don't write a whole message in capital letters. It
hurts people's ears.
Check your spelling and use complete sentences. By
default, Evolution will put
a red line beneath words it doesn't recognize, as you
type them.
Don't send nasty emails (flames). If you get one,
don't write back.
When you reply or forward, include just enough of
the previous message to provide context: not too
much, not too little.
Don't send spam.
RSVPs in Mail
If you create an event in the calendar component, you can then
send invitations to the attendee list through the
Ximian Evolution email tool. The
invitation card is sent as an attachment in iCal format.
If you click on the attachment button and click the
View Inline, Ximian
Evolution will show you information about the
meeting, and let you respond to the meeting in several ways.
Select the response that you would like, and then click the
OK button.
Your options are:
Accept
Select this entry if you will attend the meeting. When you
click the OK button, the meeting will
be entered into your calendar.
Tentatively Accept
Select this entry if you will probably attend the meeting.
When you click the OK button, the
meeting will be entered into your calendar, but marked as
tentative.
Decline
Select this item if you will be unable to attend the
meeting. The meeting will not be entered into your calendar
when you click the OK, although your
response will be sent to the meeting host if you have
checked the RSVP box.
RSVP
Check this box if you would like your response sent to
the meeting organizers.
Subscription Management
Since IMAP folders exist on the server, and opening them or
checking them takes time, you need fine-grained control over the
way that you use IMAP folders. That's why
Evolution has an IMAP subscriptions
manager. If you prefer to have every mail folder displayed, you
can select that option as well. However, if you'd like to choose
specific items in your mailbox, and exclude others, you can use
the subscription management tool to do that.
Here's how:
Select
ToolsSubscribe
to Folders.
If you have accounts on multiple IMAP servers, select the
server where you'd like to manage your
subscriptions. Evolution will
display a list of available files and folders.
Select a file or folder by clicking on it. You will want
to select at least the INBOX
folder. Depending upon the way your IMAP server is
configured, the list of available files may include
non-mail folders. If it does, you can ignore them.
Click the Subscribe to add it to
the subscribed list.
When you have subscribed to the folders you want, close
the window.
EncryptionWhat is Encryption?
Encryption is an ancient method of keeping information safe
from prying eyes. Evolution helps
you you protect your privacy by using
gpg, an implementation of strong
Public Key
Encryption.Public Key? Private Key? What is the difference?
GPG uses two keys: public and private. You can give your
public key to anyone you want to receive
encrypted messages, or put it on a public key server so
that people can look it up before contacting you.
Never give your private key to anyone,
ever. Your private key lets you decrypt any
message encrypted with your public key.
Using encryption takes a bit of forethought. When you send a
message that is encrypted, you must encrypt it using your
intended recipient's public key. To get
an encrypted message, you must make sure that the sender has
your public key in advance. For signing messages, it's
reversed: you encrypt the signature with your private key, so
only your public key can unlock it. When you send it, the
recipient gets your public key and unlocks the signature,
verifying your identity.
You can use encryption in two different ways:
Encrypt the entire message, so that nobody but the recipient can read it.
Attach an encrypted signature to a plain text message, so
that the recipient can read the message without decrypting
it, and only needs decryption to verify the sender's
identity.
Sending an Encrypted Message
Kevin wants to send an encrypted message to his friend
Rachel. He looks up her public key on a general key
server, and then tells
Evolution to encrypt the
message. The message now reads "@#$23ui7yr87#@!48970fsd."
When the information gets to Rachel, she decrypts it using
her private key, and it appears as plain text for her to
read.
Always Sign
You can set Evolution to always sign your email messages:
Select
ToolsSettings, go to the Mail Account settings, and
select the account with which you want to use encryption.
Open the Security tab.
Click the Always sign outgoing messages when using this account button.
Making Encryption Keys
Before you can get or send encrypted mail, you need to
generate your public and private keys with GPG. Here's how:
GPG Versions
This manual covers version 1.0.6 of GPG. If your version is
different, this may not be entirely accurate. You may find
out your version number by typing in the command: gpg
--version.
Open a terminal and type gpg --gen-key.
Choose the default algorithm, "DSA and ElGamal."
Choose a key length. The default, 1024 bits, should be
long enough.
Decide if you want your key to expire automatically, and
if so, when.
Enter your name, email address, and any additional
personal information you think is appropriate. Do not
falsify this information, because it will be needed to
verify your identity later on.
Next, enter your passphrase. It does not have to be the
same as your email password or your login password. In
fact, it probably shouldn't. Don't forget it. If you lose
it, your keys will be useless and you will be unable to
decrypt messages sent to you with those keys.
Now, GPG will generate your keys. This may take awhile,
so feel free to do something else while it's
happening. In fact, using your computer for something
else actually helps to generate better keys, because it
increases the randomness in the key generation seeds.
Once the keys are generated, you can view your key information
by typing gpg --list-keys. You should see
something similar to this:
/home/you/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
----------------------------
pub 1024D/32j38dk2 2001-06-20 you <you@your-address.com>
sub 1024g/289sklj3 2001-06-20 [expires: 2002-11-14]
GPG will create one list, or keyring, for your public keys
and one for your private keys. All the public keys you know
are stored in the file
~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg. If you want to
give other people your key, send them that file.
If you wish, you can upload your keys to a key server. Here's
how:
Check your public key ID with gpg
--list-keys. It will be the string after 1024D on the line
beginning with "pub." In this example, it's 32j38dk2.
Enter the command gpg --send-keys --keyserver
wwwkeys.pgp.net 32j38dk2. Substitute your key ID for
32j38dk2. You will need your password to do this.
Why Use a Key Server?
Key servers store your public keys for you so that your
friends can decrypt your messages. If you choose not to
use a key server, you can manually send your people public
key, include it in your signature file, or put it on your
own web page. However, it's easier to publish them once,
and then let people download them from a central place when
they want.
If you don't have a key you need to unlock or encrypt a
message, you can have your encryption tool set to look it
up automatically. If it can't find the key, then you'll
get an error message.
Getting and Using Public Keys
To encrypt a message to your someone else you'll need to use
their public key in combination with your private key.
Evolution does that for you, but
you still need to get their key and add it to your keyring.
To get public keys from a public key server, enter the
command:
gpg --recv-keys --keyserver wwwkeys.pgp.net keyid
, substituting "keyid" for your recipient's ID. You
will need to type in your password, and then their ID will
automatically be added to your keyring. When you send mail to
them, Evolution will allow you to
encrypt your messages.
If someone sends you their public key directly, save it as a
plain text file and enter the command gpg
filename. This will add it to your keyring.
Setting up Evolution's Encryption
You'll need to open
ToolsSettings
and select the Mail Accounts button, then
select the account you want to use securely, and click the
Edit button. Then, select the
Security tab in the account dialog. In the
Security tab is a section labeled
Pretty Good Privacy. Enter your key ID
and click OK. Your key is now
integrated into your identity in
Evolution.
What is my Key ID again?
Evolution requires that you know your key ID. If you don't remember it, you can find it by typing gpg --list-keys in a console window. Your key ID will be an eight character string with random numbers and letters.
Sending Encrypted Messages
As you know, you can use encryption to hide the entire
message, or just to verify your signature. Once you've
generated your public and private keys, and have the public
keys of the people to whom you want to send mail, here's what
to do:
Signing a Message
To sign a message, choose:
SecurityPGP Sign.
You will be prompted for your encryption password. Once
you enter it, click OK and your message
will be signed.
Encrypting a Message
Encrypting a message is very similar to signing a message.
Just choose the menu item
SecurityPGP Encrypt.
Unencrypting a Received Message
If you get an encrypted message, you will need to decrypt it
before you read it. Remember, the sender has to have your
public key before they can send you an encrypted message.
When you view the message,
Evolution will ask you for your
PGP password. Enter it, and the message will be displayed
properly.